Going to install a PC with Arch in my car!

Question

In my Miata, the center console has a single hole that usually holds a standard-sized radio and a junk holder.  When you take them both out, walla, the perfect size and place for a touchscreen!  So I'm going to put a display right on my console and install a computer in my trunk.  So here's how it's gonna go.
I'm buying speakers right now, a pair of Infinity 6020cs's.  I'm psyched because I didn't even know that sound quality could be this high with a brand name this reputable with a price this low!  AMAZING sound!  They come as a speaker/tweeder set with a crossover and I found it online for $70 (as compared to Best Buy's $191).  Anyway, speakers.  I'm also going to have a 12" Rockford Fosgate HE2 subwoofer in the trunk, housed by a box I'm going to build.  If I don't build a custom box that works around every corner I can, I won't be able to hold the things I would usually be able to fit in my trunk anymore, you know, like a box of pencils, a t-shirt, a pack of CD-Rs (but that's pushing it).  But not at the same time.  You know.  It's a Miata.
Sorry, I'm excited.  Point in saying this: I'm going to buy an M-Audio sound card for crisp audio and I want to use software EQs for everything.  Actually, if I can, I would love to skip the crossover the 6020cs's come with altogether, and since there are only two door speakers in a Miata, run the tweeders off the third and fourth channels of an amp.  This way, I can EQ out the lows to my sub, EQ the mids to my 6 1/2"s, and EQ the extreme highs to my tweeders.  So it would be a five-channel system, cause the sub would be mono.  Is there a way I can tune my sound like this directly with ALSA?  I would really like all my sound to be tuned the way I want it to without relying on a single piece of software, for example, the VLC equalizer.  I want to hear my audio EQed out the same all the time regardless of using VLC or if I popped open firefox and watched a YouTube video.  How can I do this?
My plan for power management would go like this.  Okay, so I start my car.  My computer comes out of hibernate and resumes any audio or what not that was going on.  Then I park it and get out.  My computer will still be running for about 10 minutes with the music automatically paused.  After 10 minutes, it'll go inter hibernate again, but if I hop in my car and start it, it'll resume the audio's playback.  The audio equipment will be turned off via the +12V accessory wire from my ignition, so only my computer will be running at this point.  Hell, I could even have the display turn off too.  But this brings me to a question.  Is there some software I could use that would run commands based of inputs from a serial port or something?  For example, the accessory lead drops the +12V signal, now I want it to wait 10 minutes.  I could run the +12V into a relay that trips pins on a serial port and x software could run a script that waits for ten minutes, and when the relay is activated again, a script executes that kills that script.  Or maybe even the other way around where the software would trip relays through the serial port, you know, to turn the sub on and off or something of that nature.  Does something like this exist?
My idea for HID is to utilize bluetooth.  I want to keep a portable keyboard (and mouse too, sometimes a touchscreen doesn't do what you want) in my glove box.  I don't want to use any console space for a keyboard.  Although, it would be very nice to have an on-screen keyboard when I need to do something quickly.  As for volume, track skip, etc, I'm going to use a touchscreen with buttons on the frame that'll respond to doing things like a stereo would.  I really don't want to have to fidget with software while I'm driving.  The screen will probably be very similar to this one.  I'm still deciding on brands.  Have any of you guys put a display in your car and have one to recommend?  I'm worried about buying a display without actually seeing it.  I don't want something that won't go dimmer than blindingly bright or something where the color looks like junk.  I'll look more on mp3car.com for this too.
I'm going to be able to stay online with my car too.  I plan on tethering my computer to my cell phone - it has 3G and the data moves pretty quick.  At home, I want to set up a file server that I can stream my music archive from (and download from when I know I'm going out-of-range).  I'll also have a wifi card in my car so when I park it in my driveway, I can get on my computer and administrate the PC.  I'm also fooling around with the idea of the computer acting as a remote-start and a security system, but that's for later.
So blah blah blah ... is there any good music player software that would work good in a car like this?  What would you recommend for a GPS solution?
Ongoing project cost (as of December 15, 2008):
$85 - Intel D945GCLF2
$13 - Kingston KVR667D2N5/512 (512MB DDR2 RAM)
Total: $98
Last edited by synthead (2008-12-15 10:10:30)

Answer 1

rson451 wrote:You should list prices as you go along so we can see how much damage you're doing to yourself
Good idea!  I'll start a list on my first post.
mrunion wrote:
Your Miata already has one battery in the trunk -- and it's vented to the outside. Another back there would be no problem. Just buy another of the same kind and use a 'T' type connector to merge the vent tubes. Secure the thing down good. As for the "PC", some people remove the carpet from the deck behind the seats and under there there is a little "well" area.  They stick the thing in there.  Try hitting miata.net and searching the forum and you may find the post about the guy who did it.  Might save you some effort and R&D.
Yes, I have a Miata as well....My "toy" is a 2002 SE Blazing Yellow.  Only a 1000 of these things driving around!
You have a yellow one   That's killer, those are really rare!  Is it in good shape?  I love Miatas, they're so much fun and stupid cheap to own
The battery in my car is strapped to the chassis with a rope.  I don't have the factory battery mount.  I was going to weld one together soon though, but now that you mention vents, I'm curious.  How exactly is it fitted?  Time to Google ...
jerryluc wrote:
When I read about this project yesterday I remembered having read about a guy doing the same.
I found the story, but it's in Norwegian so it's probably not so interesting for most of you. Anyways:
http://linux1.no/blogg/noja/3532/linux-i-bilen
The guy has put Arch in his car as a music server, touch screen and all...
If someone(Synthead specially) is really interested i could try to translate it, but I'm not that good in English -
Maybe someone who speak Norwegian and speak English a little better then me can do it?
Niiiice, and he used MythTV!  That's brilliant!  I installed it on my car PC in progress and I'm working on it   Awesome, thank you!
Ranguvar wrote:
The Atom 330 is a dual-core with HT, sorry!
Really sweet project, though. Good luck!
As for SSDs, the crazy-pricey Intel ones may be worth waiting a little for... 80GB+ with _real_ 250Mb/s speeds! They smoke everything else. Do a lot of research here though, because some SSDs are really wretched. Also remember that SDHCs are extremely cheap and offer tons of storage, so a small and fast main SSD may be a good choice.
I kneeeeew there was a catch.  That's okay, I'll still have a dual 1.6 Ghz CD player   And regarding combining storage types, that is an excellent idea.  I'm definitely going that route.  I would love to use an SD card or a CF card as storage and a smaller SSD for the OS.   That's perfect.  Thank you!
Some good success so far ... just building up the OS at home until I can find a good screen, solid state disk, and power supply to use   I started a thread about xorg locking up and it turns out it was because of the new hald integration.  I LOVE the idea of combining hald and xorg!  But anyway, my GUI is up and running and it's setup the way I like as a desktop.  When I migrate the carputer into my car, I'll tweak things around so it'll be practical to use with a touchscreen.
Right now, I'm connected to the internet using Tetherbot with my Google Android phone and it works great.  So that takes care of the internet.  I have a bluetooth receiver and a GPS system that acts as a dongle when attached (will replace with a standalone GPS module later).  I'm tinkering with these.
Later on, I'm going to go to Goodwill, grab a multimedia keyboard, and gut it.  There's a removable ashtray next to the stickshift in my car, so I'm going to use this area to install a touchpad and the hacked up keyboard controls for the PC.  I will go to TAP Plastics and have them fabricate something nice that'll drop right in.  I'm going to source out buttons that look like arrows and the like to have designated buttons for skip, play, pause, stop, etc.  I'm also going to try to find a keyboard with one of those rotary volume controls and use it.  Nothing like a little xbindkeys   I would really like this to look fancy.  Not blue LEDs/carbon fiber/chrome fancy, more like "that guy did a good job" fancy.  Although if I could have the buttons lit when the car's parking lights are on, that would be killer.
So at this point, I need to buy these things for only the car PC to work in my car the way I want:
* DC-DC PSU
* 8" Transreflective screen that operates (or can operate) on 12VDC that can go very dim and very bright
* Resistive touchscreen overlay, preferably USB (for when wearing gloves, it's a convertible)
* Solid state disk, doesn't have to be too big or too fast
* Bluetooth keyboard
* USB touchpad
* Goodwill keyboards, fancy switches, TAP fabrication
I'm probably looking at 300-500 more dollars on this end.  Throw another ... $300 in for the two-way speakers I want + an amp.  My sub and sub amp I have, but I need to build a cabinet.  Also, for an M-Audio sound card, I'll probably put aside another $100.  And yes, they make an astounding difference in sound quality.  I use an M-Audio 1010LT in my home studio with some audiophile headphones and the difference is very obvious
I'll try to take some pics of my car and where I'm going to put things soon.
Last edited by synthead (2008-12-12 07:48:58)